The Reindeer Chronicles

“Compelling, Fascinating, sometimes unexpectedly moving, this vitally important book is, above all, a springboard for hope and transformation.”—Isabella Tree

“A lucid and compelling look at the global movement of ecological rehabilitation.”— The Boston Globe

In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization.

Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology.

Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge.

The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

“Judith Schwartz proves, once again, that she is one of ecology’s most indispensable writers. . . The Reindeer Chronicles is at once visionary and pragmatic—clear-eyed about the immense planetary challenges we face, yet unfailingly hopeful about our ability to forge a new relationship with nature. This book shows us what Aldo Leopold’s land ethic looks like in the twenty-first century.”—Ben Goldfarb, PEN America Literary Award-winning author of Eager